Today, Ḥaredim still tend to shun the label “Zionist,” even if most would be just as uncomfortable to be labeled as anti-Zionists. Moreover, writes Yehoshua Pfeffer, it is hard for any religious Jew to deny that, as Israel enters its 75th year, its creation and survival is nothing short of miraculous.
Israel’s large and growing ultra-Orthodox population, whose relationship with the state is ambivalent, quickly overcame its initial suspicions and recognized the miracle unfolding before its eyes. Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky, the Slonimer rebbe, could not contain his amazement, [writing that], “our very eyes behold revelations that no dreamer or visionary could have entertained just a generation ago. . . . Tents of Torah study bloom; ḥasidic sanctuaries flourish in the fullness of their glory, alongside a t’shuvah movement unheard of in any past generation.”
Of course, the miracle of Jewish revival goes far beyond the world of Orthodoxy. The very fact that nonobservant Jews remain Jewish, coupled with birthrates that exceed any other OECD country, testifies to the wonder of Israel no less than its yeshiva institutions and ḥasidic courts.
But miracles can dissipate as quickly as they occur. The miracles of the Egyptian redemption did not prevent the death of the entire generation in the wilderness on account of its sinfulness. The miracle wrought by Elijah at Mount Carmel [1Kings 18–19] did not prevent the religious and political disintegration of the people. It is up to us to ensure that the miracle of modern-day Israel does not suffer the same fate.
[The rebirth of Israel also] is a call to action and a trial. We did not return to our ancestral homeland for the purpose of mere survival. This dramatic return challenges us to take history into our hands, partnering with God as we mold it in our image. That is what the early Zionist leaders who established the state of Israel and wrought the miracle did—despite all their ideological differences. Today, it is the turn [of the Ḥaredim]—the turn of a population much changed over the course of 75 years—to move Israel into its next phase.
Read more on Sapir: https://sapirjournal.org/israel-at-75/2023/05/israel-is-a-miracle/